Working with PayPal
Once you have selected the PayPal option as one of your payment options, all you need to do is enter your PayPal Business Account (sign up using your account email address). Quick Shopping Cart does the rest and even integrates with the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) service to automate order processing.
About PayPal IPN Order Processing
IPN allows PayPal to communicate with merchants to provide real-time order confirmation and processing. Using PayPal, order management is easier with immediate notification and confirmation of received PayPal payments and additional status information, such as pending, canceled, or failed transactions.
Learn more at Merchant Tools - Instant Payment Notification.
The order flow for PayPal enabled merchant accounts is quite complex. The following provides a high-level view of order processing through PayPal IPN.
- IPN Action New order placed by shopper.
- Pending eCheck: payment marked as Pre-Authorized.
- Pending Merchant: Email sent to merchant for action.
- Completed: Order contains at least one shippable product (payment verified).
- IPN Action When Pending items are completed (by PayPal for checks or accepted by merchant), email sent to merchant and order marked as Completed.
- Merchant Action Merchant can cancel at this stage.
- IPN Action All orders are Complete or have been canceled by merchant.
- IPN Action Completed orders are moved to Invoiced.
- Merchant Action Merchant can now assign order as Shipped. For digital download, assigned as Shipped on Complete.
- IPN Action Invoiced or Shipped orders can be assigned Refunded (email to customer and merchant), Payment Error (email to customer and merchant), or Payment Dispute (email to customer and merchant).
- IPN Action Final status moves to Canceled or Complete.